THE ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2152, 23 May 1895, Page 21

THE ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

THE REFORMS DEMANDED. Constantinople, May 14. The Note sent by Great Britain, Russia, (end France respecting reforms in Armenia inflifite on one-third of the officials in Armenia being Christians ; that the Great Powers shall have the right of veto in the selection of Governors ; that there shall be a mixed gendarmerU ; regular aßeizes shall be held, and rigid prison inspection ; that the Kurds shall be disarmed ; that the sufferers by the recent atrocities shall be reimbursed ; and that the Forte shall appoint a commission to watch over the future administration of Armenia. The commission have discovered in Gelly Goozan a burial pit containing the remains of the inhabitants of several of the destroyed Tillages. May 15. Great Britain, Russia, and France intend to establish consulates in Armenia, and their representatives will supervise the carry icg out of necessary reforms. It in also snt«ndod to establish communes for controlling the laws and for collecting the taxes locally. May 17. It is believed that the Sultan will accept the scheme of reforms in Armenia submitted by the Great Powers. London, May 17. Separate Notes have been sent by England, Russia, and France to the Su'.tau, demanding an early reply, and announcing their firm intention of enforcing reforms ia Armenia. It is believed the Saltan is trying to get the demands modified. It is reported Shakri Pasha, formerly Turkish Ambassador at St. Petersburg, has been appointed Commissioner of Armenia.

A correspondent well acquainted with Armenia has been making a personal investigation into the atrocities committed by_ the Turks in ihatunfoituoftte couutry, Armenia, and the result of his inquiries is embodied in a long report published by The Times of March 29. The writer is thoroughly convinced that botb kst year and this the Ottoman Government gave oral aud written orders to Iho Kurds to atUck the Armenian*, promieirg Ihcm the booty, and relieving them of respon&ibility as to consequences. The Balakli tribe of Kurds alone refused to have any part in the affair. The Sasgun Kurds entered into it half-heartedly ODly after they saw that it had to be done, and then they devoted therm elves almoit exclnsi? oly to plunder. In this last conflict they eecretly helped some of the Auneniane to < soapo. About the end' of May last there were several fights between Kurds and Armenians. The lattar, as a rule, held their ground, and in some instances repuleed the Kurds. Meanwhile the Government was concentrating tcoopj— ls to 18 battalions in all. The Armenians of (he Sfaeniz district were called up to surrender, and premised amnesty. About 40 leading men from JSemal, headed by a young priest, obeyed the summons. They were kept two days in onmp and can-fully questioned. On the third day these men, who had been guilty only of defending themselves against the Kurd*, aud had eurrondercd in good faith to the Government, were brought bound to a p't or trench that hud been prepared, the soldiers were ordered to charge on them with their bayonets, and they were all cast, some of them half-alive, into the pit and buried. When the fate of those who had surrendered began to bo known 6ome succeeded in escaping. Setting fire to houses, killing all, big or little, of either sex, became general. Firing of guns and mountain pieces drowned the shrieks of women and children. Young men wore caught, bonnd hands ar.d feet, placed on tbe ground, covered with brushwood, and burned to death. | Others were hacked to pieces. One house in Bhenig was filled with some 50 men, woman, and children. Tbis was set on fire by the soldiers. One boy, who was tiying to escape, was caught ou a bayonet and thrown bavk. Korko, one of the richest men in the village, did not escape, »s he would not deßert bin wife, who had been confined a night or two before. He was 6efze<J and brought before tbe Ztlon sht-ikh and the commander of the troops. It s«-m» he had wounded tbe sheikh's brother in the arm in the fight of the previous year. Now, the soldiers and Kurds had their revenge. They took him to bis house, where his wife was lying, and then, placing the new-born babe on the mother's breast, cut them both in two. K«rko was then taken a long distance away and despatched. His shirt, made of specially fine cloth, and identified by the one who sewed it, was subsequently found. It had some 20 bajonet and dagger rents in it. Kerko's brother Gazar's wife, an uuu6ua)ly handsome woman, was kept arr.oug the soldiers for several days and urged to change her faith ; but, as she persistently refused, she was made away with. In the village of Bemal, containing from 50 to 60 house?, 12 were wholly destroyed. Iv Galin, from a hou*ehold of 52, only two escaped — an old mtn and his grandson. Some hundred women and children were imprisoned in the Galin church for several days. Tbe women were violated and afterwards killed. The number was large enough to make a stream of blood flow out over th-s threshold. Six picked young women, two of them maidens of that village, five from Hetink, and four from Agbpig, were reserved by the soldiers. After beeping them for days without succeeding in making tbe7n accept Islam, tbey butchered them. A soldier had taken to hirnstlf a girl, 11 years old, from Agbpig. Another sol.lier wanted to appropriate her, and, whsu tha ficst owner objected, he shot her dead. A compausionate soldier who was asked by an officer to ehoot a wom*n, purpostly missed her. The officer gave him a cuff, snatched away hia gun, and find. The woman fell with a great shriek, the in&u ran up, and ripping her open, extracted a living child. The memory of that shriek and that sight, the soldier went on to say, had m&da him sick ever since. Such treatment of women in that condition was a common occurrence, aud in almost every case officers proved themselves even more ferocious than the common soldiers. As some eoldiers were paeaiDg through a village »treet tbey found a child sittiag there. Their superior ordered a soldier to kill it. The soldier was bold enongh to ask what harm the child had done to d sirvo death. The superior then wilted to know if I he soldier had become a rebel " Khffir." Upon this the soldier tipped the child over the back of his sword and they passed on. A soldier found two small boys behind a rock chewing brush leaves. He took pity on them, and for two days shared his rations with them, but on his next visit to them found them butchered. Another soldier ■ucceeds in secreting and caring for six boys in » millet field for about a week, bub comes one £&y to find their mangled bodies. Early every morning, at a bugle cfcllf the

soldiers in the Dalvotfg district would eet out in squad 9to hunb down the villagers. Thoie at a distance they would Bhoot down. The y would Bhout, "There he runs!" and those who were in hiding among the bushca or stones would feel insecure and attempt to move to another place, when they would be seen aud shot. The soldiers would Ore their guns among the bushes to scare up their " game." Mothers have been known to smother their children in tbeir effort to keep them quiet so that they should not be discovered. The London Globe's correspondent in Constantinople reasserts that most of the stories of Armenian horrora have been invented by interested persons, and are part of the propaganda of an organised political campaign against the Porte. The Speaker's Constantinople representative, who claims to speak on authority, admits that the Armenians in Sassoun rebelled in 1893 and fought a successful battle with the Kurds, of whom they killed more than 200. This is mentioned, as showing the ground for the esprdition of the Kurds against the Armenians in 185 M. The same correspondent attempts to weaken the effect of the coming report of the Armenian commission of inquiry by asserting that a mass of false testimony has been furui6hed, including that of three priests, who were paid large sums for their evidence, and that other witnesses have been hired in large numbers to swear to a long list of atrocities committed by Armenians upon Turks in Mcoah and other place 3 near by.